Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear tells South Carolina Democrats his record is a red state success story
Offering blunt advice to fellow Democrats in the traditionally early primary state, Beshear said the national party should take its message directly to places where voters shifted to the Republican Party in 2024, when the GOP won the White House and Congress. The potential 2028 presidential candidate said that message should concentrate on core issues such as jobs, health care, education, transportation and public safety, and how Democrats can make Americans' lives better.
Beshear introduced himself to South Carolina voters as someone with an established record of winning in a deeply Republican state. He is the son of a two-term Kentucky governor, and is now in his second and final term after serving as the state attorney general.
'If you don't know me, I'm the guy who's won three straight races in deep-red Kentucky,' Beshear said at an organized labor conference in Greenville. 'I'm the guy that's beaten Mitch McConnell's handpicked candidates. I'm the guy that's beaten Donald Trump's handpicked candidates.' McConnell is a veteran Kentucky lawmaker who was the longtime Republican leader in the Senate.
Beshear said Trump's tax and spending cut bill, which passed without any Democratic support, was an attack on rural America and on 'Southerners like us,' but also gives his party a political opening heading into election in 2026 and beyond.
'Democrats can win again by winning back that middle, and it's there for the taking,' he said. 'There's so much discourse right now about the messaging and how Democrats get out of the wilderness. We do it by showing up. We do it by getting dirt on our boots. And we do it by governing well.'
In his speech, Beshear stressed his pro-union credentials, his Southern kinship with the audience and how his Christian faith shapes how he governs. He said health care is a basic human right and he played up Kentucky's record pace of job growth and private-sector investment, saying it shows 'you can be pro-jobs, pro-business and pro-worker all at the same time.'
The governor said Americans have experienced 'chaos, incompetence and cruelty' since Trump returned to the White House, and that the new tax and spending cuts will hurt people on Medicaid and receiving food assistance, in particular. The fallout from Medicaid cuts will threaten many rural hospitals that are major employers, he said.
Republicans say they have delivered broad tax cuts, invested heavily in immigration enforcement and put new restraints on social safety net programs. Democrats say it rolls back health insurance access and raises costs for middle-class Americans while cutting taxes mostly for the rich.
For Beshear, going on the offense against Trump is not enough for Democrats. The party needs to communicate better, he said.
'We put out major policy papers and then talk about the nuance on it,' he said. 'But when we explain our why, that's when people see how bought in we are, how much we care and how hard we'll work.'
Though the first presidential primary votes are more than two years away, several possible contenders have traveled to South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa, states that usually have an early and oversize role in the nomination.
Looking to connect with his South Carolina audience, Beshear punctuated his speech by referring to the group as 'y'all.'
'As a Southern governor, this isn't the first time I've said 'y'all,'' he said. 'I also know when you say 'bless your heart,' that ain't good.'
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Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky.
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